April 2011
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Maximized Revenue, Minimized Existence →
NYT reviews DFW’s The Pale King:
David Foster Wallace’s magnum opus Infinite Jest depicted an America so distracted and obsessed with entertainment that a mesmerizing movie becomes a potential terrorist weapon — capable of making viewers die of pleasure. His posthumous unfinished novel, The Pale King — which is set largely in an I.R.S. office in the Midwest — depicts an America so plagued...
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March 2011
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Gingrich: “I have two grandchildren… [and] I am convinced that if we do not decisively win the struggle over the nature of America, by the time they’re my age, they will be in a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists…”
Jon Stewart: “I don’t want to nitpick here, but how can a secular atheist country be dominated by...
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Farrakhan defends Libya's Gadhafi as 'brother' →
Warning that death and destruction was on America’s doorstep because of its arrogance and oppression of “God’s chosen people,” Minister Louis Farrakhan, the controversial Nation of Islam leader defended “Brother Leader Moammar Gadhafi” and called the U.S. action in Libya hypocrisy.
The rare press conference was held at Mosque Maryam, the international...
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The horrors for Eman al-Obeidi, the woman who... →
From the Daily Beast:
Now the men Eman al-Obeidi says raped her are suing her. In Libya, as across much of the Middle East, rape victims are doubly traumatized. After their assaults, they are shamed—even murdered—for destroying the family’s honor.
“Women still suffer from outdated cruel concepts that a woman who was raped brought it on herself,” Sarah Leah Whitson, a Libya researcher for Human...
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WaPo: Five myths about gas prices →
1. Fighting in Libya is sending gas prices higher.
Libya is not a big enough global oil supplier for the battles there to have a meaningful effect on gas prices. In the 1970s and early 1980s, Libya was a major U.S. supplier, selling us around 700,000 barrels of oil per day. But today, we import less than 50,000 barrels per day from Libya — a tiny fraction of the 9.2 million barrels per day the...
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Andrew Sullivan: The Imperial President →
vruz:
kateoplis:
And as much as I respect Sullivan, to resort to calling this “an emotional response,” knowing full well that it’s the women of the White House who advised Obama to commit to this No Fly Zone is at best, irresponsible.
vruz: as much as I respect everybody, it’s become apparent that the dear leader can’t be criticised. and if it was whoever was who advised obama to go to war...
Andrew Sullivan: The Imperial President →
vruz:
The president’s speech was disturbingly empty. There are, it appears, only two reasons the US is going to war, without any Congressional vote, or any real public debate. The first is that the US cannot stand idly by while atrocities take place. Yet we have done nothing in Burma or Congo and are actively supporting governments in Yemen and Bahrain that are doing almost exactly - if less...
“They’re fucking gross, man. Look, I love beautiful girls too. I think everyone...”
– Amy Poehler on American Apparel (via mollylambert)
Amen, sista. (via avenyc)
Triple Dog Amen.
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Think Globally, Destroy Locally: Environmentalism... →
theatlantic:
The battle over massive solar farms in the Mojave desert shows how green technology can resolve some of the deepest tensions in America’s relationship with progress, recentering environmentalism around people and work.
If ever there is going to be a place where solar energy works, the Mojave Desert is it. It is, as venture capitalist and solar enthusiast Bill Gross likes to say,...
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Tonight's POTUS speech drinking game: "limited"... →
NYTimes.com's Plan To Charge People Money For... →
In a move that media executives, economic forecasters, and business analysts alike are calling “extremely bold,” NYTimes.com put into place a groundbreaking new business model today in which the news website will charge people money to consume the goods and services it provides. “The whole idea of an American business trying to make a profit off of a product its hired...
The Collapse of Globalization →
Adequate food, clean water and basic security are already beyond the reach of perhaps half the world’s population. Food prices have risen 61 percent globally since December 2008, according to the International Monetary Fund. The price of wheat has exploded, more than doubling in the last eight months to $8.56 a bushel. When half of your income is spent on food, as it is in countries such as Yemen,...
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“You cannot have a revolution if you’re not willing to sacrifice everything.”
– Kateoplis (via jhnbrssndn) Re: this.
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“They say that I have no hits and that I’m difficult to work with and they say...”
– Tom Waits, Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame induction speech (via byronic)
Previously
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Why I Won't Be Turning Off Any Lights for Earth...
climateadaptation:
Ben Jervey, an important mentor to me, succinctly argues against the Earth Hour cause. He argues that turning off your lights for an hour once per year is a frivilous, too-little/too-late act that has no consequences at all.
He argues that Earth Hour:
Doesn’t save energy because power plants burn coal 24/7/365
Doesn’t change any habits to an extent that’s remotely...
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“Patriot: The person who can holler the loudest without knowing what he is...”
– Mark Twain
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“This sexualization does not come without consequences. By marketing adult...”
– Jessica Valenti in “Sex sells — even to kids: Racy clothing for preteens is sending a troubling and dangerous message.” (via thedailyfeed)
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